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Who cares
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Sponsors
Senator · Senate District 17
2 Co-sponsors
History
- Referred to children and families
Full text
The text isn't available here yet. Check nysenate.gov.
Sponsor's memo
BILL NUMBER:S7061
Title of bill
An act to amend the social services law and the executive law, in relation to access to law enforcement records during an active investigation of suspected child abuse or maltreatment undertaken by a child protective service
Purpose
To improve the quality, speed and safety of investigations of suspected child abuse and neglect by requiring law enforcement to provide within seventy-two hours of a request by a child protective service a full and complete copy of any unsealed records that pertain to an active investigation of suspected child abuse or maltreatment undertaken by a child protective service.
Read the full memo (928 words)
Summary of provisions
Section 1 of the bill amends Section 424 of the Social Services Law to require the State Police, the Division of Criminal Justice Services, the Division of Parole and any other department, agency, or division of the state that holds relevant records, within seventy-two hours of a request by a child protective service, provide a full and complete copy of any unsealed record that pertain to an active investigation of suspected child abuse or maltreatment undertaken by a child protective service. The records include, but are not limited to, arrest and conviction records, orders of protection, information indicating that a person named in a report is currently under supervision of a probation or parole agency of the state or of a local government and the charge or charges related thereto, information indicating if there is an outstanding arrest warrant, information indicating if a person is a registered sex offender and information regarding requests for police services or a police response to a specified address or involving specified persons.
Section 1 also requires local municipal police departments, county sheriff offices, all fire departments whether volunteer or not, all 911 dispatch operations, parole agencies or departments, all ambulance services whether public or private and any other department, agency, or division of a local government that hold relevant records shall, within seventy-two hours of a request by a child protective service, provide a full and complete copy of any unsealed records. The records include, but are not limited to, arrest and conviction records, orders of protection, information indicating that a person named in a report is currently under supervision of a probation or parole agency or department of the state or of a local government and the charge or charges related thereto, information indicating if there is an outstanding arrest warrant, information indicating if a person is a registered sex offender and information regarding requests for police services, information that there has been a request for a police response or other emergency response to a specified address or involving specified persons.
Section 1 also keeps these records confidential and requires this information be provided at no cost to the child protective service.
Section 2 of the bill adds subdivision 20 to Section 837 by making a typographical change.
Section 3 of the bill amends Section 837 of the Executive Law by making it a duty of the Division of Criminal Justice Services to supply records requested by a child protective service.
Section 4 Section 4 of the bill amends Section 223 of the Executive Law by making it a duty of the state police to provide all relevant records that are requested by a child protective service. Section 4 of the bill amends Section 223 of the Executive Law by making it a duty of the state police to provide all relevant records that are requested by a child protective service.
Section 5 of the bill amends Section 259-k of the Executive Law by making it a duty of the Division of Parole to supply records requested by a child protective service.
Section 6 of the bill amends Section 256-a of the Executive Law by making it a duty of any Probation agency or department to supply records requested by a child protective service
Section 7 is the effective date.
Existing law
New bill.
Justification
CPS investigation must be commenced virtually immediately after their receipt by each child protective services unit in each county. Quick access to criminal records of those persons named in a CPS report will provide the responding CPS workers with what could prove to be critically important information that will aid in their investigation to protect children from new acts of violence and offer workers with an added level of personal security. Should police records indicate that a violent felon is in the home, the CPS worker will be warned and may seek a police escort to accompany them to the home and might have valuable information that could indicate the need for a firmer and more rapid action to protect a child.
Child protective services workers are currently trained by the New York State Office of Children and Family Services to examine the criminal history of alleged perpetrators of child abuse or maltreatment during an assessment or investigation. However, there is no legal obligation from law enforcement entities to quickly provide this information.
This is one in a series of measures being introduced to improve the provision of child protective services to New York's children and families.
Legislative history
New bill.
Fiscal implications
To be determined.
Effective date
This act shall take effect immediately, provided that the amendments to section 223 of the executive law made by section three of this act shall be subject to the expiration and reversion of such section pursuant to section 3 of chapter 428 of the laws of 1999, as amended, when upon such date the provisions of section four of this act shall take effect.
Summaries, headlines and scores are AI-generated from the official bill text. How we score bills. Source: NYS Open Legislation.